Let's Give the Blind Better Access to Online Learning
  James Yang for The Chronicle
  By Virginia A.  Jacko
  It is ironic that in an age when technology could erase so many 
barriers for blind students, colleges and universities are not 
paying enough attention to accessibility in their online 
services.  Online learning should be a significant advantage for 
blind and visually impaired students because of the absence of 
physical barriers--there is no struggle to locate classrooms, 
deal with elevators, or walk between buildings on a large campus.  
While most colleges attempt to comply reasonably with the 
Americans With Disabilities Act, all too often the developers and 
publishers of software and online course-management systems, 
digital textbooks, and other course materials--as well as the 
colleges that buy their products--ignore the needs of blind and 
visually impaired students.
  I first expressed concern about digital accessibility more than 
10 years ago, when I was a financial executive at Purdue 
University.  When Purdue launched its distance-learning 
initiative, like many universities it did not see accessibility 
as a priority.  I was then losing my eyesight to retinitis 
pigmentosa, a hereditary eye disease that causes gradual vision 
loss leading to total blindness, and I was becoming aware of how 
technology can both help and hinder the disabled.  Purdue adopted 
an online-purchasing system that shut out the visually impaired.  
When I alerted the software designers and the company's 
president, they were unaware of the problem.  At the time, we had 
several older employees, and this oversight caused some people to 
leave their positions prematurely, a blow to the university's 
human-resources pool.  People often assume that virtual 
technology, that world-at-your-fingertips magic that has been so 
entrancing and useful to almost everyone in the developed world 
for the past 15 years, erases barriers for the blind.  After all, 
we hear all the time about how anyone with Internet access can 
find out practically anything.  But it just isn't true: I have 
been totally blind for almost 10 years, and without my 
screen-reading software the world my computer offers is nothing 
but a smooth pane of glass.  The intricacies of digital forms and 
Web-page interfaces may not seem formidable at first glance 
(although heaven knows enough of my sighted friends complain 
about Web sites).  But as The Chronicle has reported ("Colleges 
Lock Out Blind Students Online," December 12, 2010), these 
barriers are just as real as any physical barrier.  My guide dog, 
Kieran, helps me negotiate physical barriers, but he certainly 
can't do anything for me online! Colleges must press software 
designers to make their online applications accessible.  
Screen-reading software, which responds to computer keystrokes by 
reading out loud the text displayed on the monitor, is one 
solution.  If every component of a Web site has a text element, 
the screen-reading software should work.  I use JAWS (Job Access 
With Speech) software, which works extremely well with Microsoft 
software.  I am able to use Outlook, Word, and Excel by running 
JAWS simultaneously.  Federal standards on access to electronic 
and information technology (referred to as Section 508) require 
keyboard-enabled interfaces.  The technical standards for 
software are clear: "When software is designed to run on a system 
that has a keyboard, product functions shall be executable from a 
keyboard where the function itself or the result of performing a 
function can be discerned textually?--in other words, it should 
be readable by screen-reading software like JAWS.  In addition, 
all graphic elements on Web pages must have a textual 
description.  The federal regulations also are clear about 
accessibility of online forms.  You would think this one would be 
a no-brainer, but look at all the trouble caused by online-course 
software that would not allow students using assistive technology 
to submit their assignments online the way other students could, 
as described in the December article in The Chronicle.  Our 
computer instructors at Miami Lighthouse for the Blind and 
Visually Impaired Inc., of which I am president, have heard 
complaints about online accessibility from blind and visually 
impaired students attending colleges in Florida, but such 
complaints are not unique to our state.  I have also heard 
success stories, especially in cases where students used 
distance-learning course software developed by Angel Learning 
Inc.  With the acquisition of the company by Blackboard Inc., a 
more flexible environment for teaching and learning should 
develop, which may begin to resolve accessibility problems with 
screen-reading software.  The most frequent issue involves Web 
sites that are not accessible or are very difficult to use.  The 
screen-reading software is unable to read graphics that do not 
include a text component.  Other complaints we hear involve 
professors who send e-mails with attachments that are scanned 
documents, rather than text that can be rendered by 
screen-reading software.  A scanned document is just like a 
picture as far as screen-reading software is concerned, and 
therefore reads as "blank." Another issue is that some Web sites 
have automatic, continuous instant-messaging updates or 
continuous chats, which need to have a link to disable them, 
because JAWS frequently garbles the constantly changing text.  
Miami Lighthouse has formed partnerships with software companies 
as a test site for other kinds of accessible technology, and we 
would welcome the opportunity to work with developers on 
accessible courseware and other learning technology--but no one 
has asked! It isn't enough anymore for a university to have an 
office of disability services that provides course assistants and 
a place for students to complain.  We are living in a world that 
has fully embraced digital technology and media, and the blind 
and other disabled people have the right to participate in it 
fully.  It is not an impossible or even a difficult task to make 
sure all graphic elements are keyboard-enabled.  Software 
designers for colleges and other institutions will make 
accessibility automatic when they realize their market demands 
it.  It would also help for faculty members to keep accessibility 
in mind and think twice before, say, attaching scanned course 
material to an e-mail or requiring participation in a live chat, 
which is a big challenge for JAWS software.  Many universities 
are expanding their distance-learning curricula, which can be 
very lucrative.  But if that expansion includes the large-scale 
use of Web-based materials that shut out blind students, 
universities will eventually have to account for that failure.  
Accessibility affects everyone in the long run.  It is perplexing 
that colleges and universities spend significant amounts of money 
on diversity initiatives aimed at promoting ethnic and 
socioeconomic diversity but fail to consider curriculum access 
for the visually impaired.  It is especially perplexing when you 
consider that the software to solve accessibility problems 
already exists, and federal regulations are in place that require 
access to online information.  We know that better online access 
for the blind is possible because we have seen it happening at 
Miami Lighthouse.  Our vision-rehabilitation program has an 
extensive assistive-technology component.  It is vital for our 
clients to know they can regain the ability to use computers, 
phones, and other electronic devices for work, education, 
socializing--everything the sighted world uses technology for.  
Our vocational-rehabilitation clients make extensive use of 
accessibility software for business and music applications, which 
has helped many of them find or keep rewarding, mainstream 
employment.  Colleges must provide better accessibility for the 
blind and visually impaired, especially as the colleges 
vigorously embrace diversity.
  Virginia A.  Jacko is president and chief executive of Miami 
Lighthouse for the Blind and Visually Impaired Inc.  She is 
co-author of The Blind Visionary (Governance Edge Press, 2010).


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